A conventional machine tool for cutting a workpiece includes a workpiece holding unit to hold a workpiece, a tool rest to hold a cutting blade that serves as a cutting tool for cutting the workpiece, a feeding unit to feed the cutting tool toward the workpiece in a predetermined feeding direction via relative movement between the workpiece holding unit and the tool rest, an actuator that serves as a vibration unit to effect relative reciprocal vibration of the workpiece holding unit and the tool rest in a radial direction of the workpiece, and a spindle that serves as a rotating unit to relatively rotate the workpiece and the cutting tool. The machine tool cuts the workpiece by feeding the spindle and the cutting blade in the radial direction of the workpiece while reciprocally vibrating the cutting blade as shown for example in FIG. 2 of Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-150201.
This cutting apparatus machines a workpiece while separating a chip generated in a cutting work by feeding the cutting blade in the radial direction of the workpiece toward the center of rotation of the workpiece so that a portion of a path traced by the cutting blade when the cutting blade is fed farthest in a feeding direction during one rotation of the workpiece overlaps a portion of a path traced by the cutting blade when the cutting blade is fed least in the feeding direction during the next rotation of the workpiece.